If you’re like me, you love everything about October and absolutely love horror movies. My uncle put me onto horror as a kid. He told me about A Nightmare on Elm Street, loaned me his VHS copy of Friday the 13th, and even told me about some other scuzzy, underground horror movies I won’t repeat here. As terrified as I was watching some of them at a tender age, I was wowed by their ability to make me feel vulnerable yet exhilarated.
To this day, I’m a horror movie junkie. I can talk your ear off about everything from Universal Monster Movies to why the first Jeepers Creepers is one of the saddest horror movies of the last 25 years. Low and behold, a handful of notable individuals behind some of the most topical horror movies of the last two decades are graduates of the University of Iowa!
Iowa took to their Facebook page to highlight some of the achievements in horror cinema from various alumni. Here are some of the most noteworthy names of the five they highlighted!
Scott Beck and Bryan Woods:
Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, natives of the Quad Cities, were the writers of the breakout hit A Quiet Place a few years back. They’ve worked pretty much exclusively in the horror genre, and their most recent movie, Heretic, was one of the best horror films of 2024:
Heretic (2024) is a psychological horror film written and directed by University of Iowa alumni Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, the creative minds behind A Quiet Place. The film follows two Mormon missionaries who visit a man’s home, only to find themselves trapped in a chilling test of faith. Starring Hugh Grant, Heretic premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and became both a critical and box office success, earning award nominations for Best Screenplay and Best Actor – per the University of Iowa’s Facebook page
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Diablo Cody:
Beyond having one of the coolest pennames in entertainment, Diablo Cody, quite frankly, doesn’t get the recognition she deserves. A Lemont, IL native (a stone’s throw from where I grew up), she graduated the University of Iowa with a Bachelor’s in Media and went on to pen the screenplay for the Oscar-nominated film Juno in 2007…